Just coming at this from uninformed left field: the only thing I can think of that would be pressurizing the crankcase like that is blowby past the pistons. Have you checked for that? (pressurize the cylinder with air via the spark plug hole and observe leak down).

Well, the oil light was associated with the dip stick being out of its tube and creating a vacuum leak. So, i take the car back to "Angel" who did the timing belt, valves, etc., and calls me and says, "Who's been working on your car?!" Apparently, a TB cover bolt was cross threaded when i had the smoke test and TB rechecked, along with the crankshaft sensor and O2 sensor tested, and he notices this. I find myself lying to him just to avoid the tongue lashing, which i shouldn't have felt guilty about in the first place, but i did it anyhow. What a mess...

So, apparently, the TB is loose causing the chatter and the other symptoms are yet to be addressed. He sat on it all week without touching it...nice.

I've been bass fishing and enjoying family get togethers, using the wife's car so Im alright, considering...take that Mitsubishi!

He's wanting to replace valve springs, stating he spoke to a performance shop buddy of his and they are recommending the valve springs be replaced... in that valve float, secondary to week valve springs, may be the cause of my 5-6k rpm power loss...http://www.aa1car.com/library/valve_..._diagnosis.htm

I can't imagine it is valve float considering that is well below factory redline. On my old BMW I would get some valve float on a balanced a blueprinted engine, but that was around 7,000 plus RPM.

"Valve Float

Valve float occurs when the springs can't keep up with the engine's speed. At high RPM (anything above 5000 RPM), the valves are opening and closing very rapidly. The camshaft rotates at half the speed of the crankshaft, so at 5000 RPM, the cam is spinning around at 2500 RPM, and pushing the valves open over 40 times a second! If the valve springs are weak, the springs may not be able to push the valves all the way shut before the next opening cycle begins. If the valves fail to close, the cylinders will lose compression causing the engine to misfire and lose power." - http://www.aa1car.com/library/valve_..._diagnosis.htm

Yeah I know what valve float is. How many miles are on your engine? I would just be surprised to see valve float on a modern engine with under 150k miles.

I wasnt questioning whether you knew what valve float was, but rather posted that in response to your, " I can't imagine it is valve float considering that is well below factory redline." This article was associating valve float in general at 5000 to 6000 RPMs which happens to be exactly what I'm experiencing. Although, I keep questioning, why am I experiencing valve float now when I wasn't before the valves we're done? The answer, or the response I got to that, was that when he spoke to the performance shop reference of his they stated that the springs may have been damaged/altered when I snapped the timing belt, " especially with turbocharged vehicles." I asked if the springs preload could be adjusted and he said no.

Here is something else that raises a red flag and that is, when I took the vehicle to have it smoke tested and the timing belt reconfirmed, I was informed that a local machine shop that does head refinishing had a bad reputation for putting out a bad product and ruining engines in the process. Well, when I asked my shop where my head was refinished he stated that very shop. I did not tell him what I was told though. If that is the case, then what symptoms would I be experiencing?

Yeah that is really strange. You almost have to assume something was messed up during the install since it didn't happen before the valves were done. I was just saying it is strange for valve float to just start happening out of nowhere.